Naruto : Domination: Chapter 89
( 25th February, year 14 AK )
Kakashi dodged with a sharp twist of his waist, the deceptively thin hand of the Godaime Hokage missing him by less than an inch while he countered with a knife-hand aimed at her eyes, perfectly controlled chakra realizing an edge capable of cutting stone.
Tsunade bent her head backwards, exposing her throat and bringing Kakashi to capitalize, changing aim and going in for the kill.
Then he felt his ribs explode as he was flung across the training ground, his chakra flailing wildly as his vision went black.
Kakashi came to as Tsunade's chakra washed over his form, ribs snapping together and behaving like liquid as they were returned to their proper place, while his lung was built once more by the skilful Kage, who raised an unimpressed eyebrow at his prone form: "Not having a Sharingan doesn't allow you to stop checking for genjutsu."
The white-haired shinobi coughed out a lump of clogged blood before narrowing his mismatched eyes towards her: "That wasn't a genjutsu."
"It wasn't," she agreed with a snort, "but I blatantly offered you my throat, you should have immediately retreated then: at this level, rookie mistakes simply do not happen.
I actually showed you my throat in order to have you retreat, as I was about to use ninjutsu, it should have been obvious that I wouldn't make such a mistake without being certain that I would strike first."
Without any more words, Kakashi circled his chakra through his body, casually checking for more injuries, but without finding any, like always, fighting the Hokage was proving to be thrilling: he could go all out, the rare wounds that he managed to inflict upon the woman tended to be healed before he could capitalize on them, while the punishing blows he received were swiftly dealt with.
"Are you ready?" the woman asked, but even as she spoke, Kakashi abruptly restarted the circling od chakra, dispelling the subtle genjutsu that hid the Kage's approach.
He pivoted on his left foot, his arm lashing out with a kunai even as he seamlessly manipulated Lighting natured chakra in order to release a bolt of lighting meant to distract more than wound: his arm met only air as the Hokage ducked under his swing, and he had to abort his attack because the woman as already inside of his guard.
A seal-less kawarimi later found him hiding among the trees of the Hokage personal training ground.
The problem, as Kakashi was coming to realize, was that Tsunade managed to land blows capable of shattering mountains while remaining completely undetected: she was a ghost.
Her stealth had been honed as much as possible, but shinobi, when in battle, tended to react instinctively because of what they naturally felt from the opponent's chakra.
"You need to start again with nature changing exercises, anything but your Raiton is sloppy." her voice came fro his left, and so he quickly went through three simple hand signs in order to spew a fireball to his left, where the woman was already charging in, only to jump away because the ground ruptured as a consequence of another of Tsunade's signature punches.
With a ducking motion when a fucking tree was hurled into his face, Kakashi fell back into ANBU training, masking his presence as best as he could and unsheathing his tanto: it was obvious that he was years away from being an actual challenge in an open fight.
But as he suddenly found himself remembering, open fights were rare, and tended to happen only between amateurs or people so powerful that they couldn't hope to operate stealthily.
"Stop." when the order came, he returned to his Kage, ars folded behind his back and tanto in its sheat once more: "You took a while to understand this, didn't you?" the Hokage asked, "You're not Orochimaru, you're not your father, you're not me: stop trying to fight like an S-rank, you're not one yet.
Simply being able to ration your reserves and last more is only a starting point, use Kage-bunshin for combination techniques if you must, but use those as a cover for a quiet ambush." she explained.
When he nodded, accepting the scolding for what it was, she sighed: "In a week, I'm sending you to the capital. We'll spar again once before you leave."
"My mission, Hokage-sama?"
"Daiki is making waves, I've ordered his 'House of the Rising Sun' to be closed down until furhter notice."
"You suspect the Akatsuki?" Kakashi asked, proving himself quick on the uptake.
The Hokage shrugged dismissively: "His books were dangerous in time of peace, now that there is less work, less food, less entertainment, the civilians tend to hide from the real world in those fantastical stories.
Coming from the same publishing house, they talk among themselves, and dream of being able to have a say in the country' politics when the only thing they're taught is how to sow a field. They chat with each other, and that is going to become a problem"
"I'm sending his Nara student to see if his old sensei left something for him in the companies he set up during his time as a Fire Guardian." she shook her head wistfully as she observed the devastation she brought forth against Hatake: "Returning to your skills... you managed to remain alive longer than I expected, well done."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama."
The message was clear: Spy on the Nara.
...
( 13th March, year 14 AK )
Karin panted as she shot forward yet another jab, following immediately with a sidestepping motion that left her in a perfect position for a leg sweep. Her knee scraped against the ground and she knew that it was a mistake, but she didn't let that deter her from completing the Kata that her... sensei... was having her perform.
Sensei. Karin repeated in her mind as she elbowed empty air before following up with a knee strike that would have collapsed the solar plexus of anyone stupid enough to come too close to her.
She was still weirded out by the strange turn of event that saw her go from a prisoner to an apprentice to an S-class nuke-nin, and she was less than enthusiastic about the taijutsu section of her training, in particular the sheer amount of body-weight exercises that she had to complete without the aid of chakra.
Still, the feeling of powerlessness that had accompanied her since her capture seemed to become lighter the longer she spent under the tutelage of the enigmatic Daiki.
She frowned as she quickly jumped back, her left foot lashing out in a quick motion meant to stop an opponent from engaging her while she looked for some breathing room, and she found herself considering the events immediately following her meeting with the Sage.
He had freed the other prisoners without giving them orders of any sort, letting them organize themselves: there were people both from the Land of Fire and Kiri, it was difficult for her to not notice immediately the twists in the chakra of some people, indicating the presence of a particular bloodline.
Karin performed a perfect cartwheel, her fingers dipping into a pouch on her right leg and lashing out with a small hail of shuriken, again, a move necessary in order to keep her distance from the imaginary opponent she was sparring with.
The prisoners' affinities were clear to her like colours on a canvas, more often than not accompanied by streaks of purple rage and red bloodlust.
Karin, half-blind as she was given her lack of glasses, had nevertheless chosen to focus on her saviour, who insisted on calling her padawan: a powerful Suiton user, with white streaks of cutting winds and deep, unyielding pillars of stone that echoed a determination so driving that she could almost touch it.
But beneath the canvas of the man's chakra, she had felt a connection, likely to a clone of some kind, tied to Daiki by an invisible stretch of chakra, which, strangely enough, seemed to come to an abrupt stop against what felt like... whirlwinds and harsh gales, howling over a rupturing ground.
Countered by calmly changing tides and soft rustling of leaves... Karin shuddered at the memory of that feeling, her balance shifting suddenly to compensate a wrong landing on her left foot.
"You are distracted." Daiki's voice cut through her sloppy routine, effectively halting her even as she felt sweat pour from her forehead and between her shoulder blades, making her cringe in distaste.
"I'm just tired," she replied turning her head towards the voice, her blindfolded eyes unable to pick up anything: "I'd rather continue my chakra training."
A soft laugh was the only answer she heard, and a scraping sound later, she landed on her butt: Daiki had moved and negligently tripped her: "You haven't even learned how to fall, and you expect me to continue when you haven't passed even this part of your training?"
Karin huffed in distaste as she ripped the blindfold off, her red eyes glaring unfocused upon her sensei: "I don't even have my glasses! she complained.
The shrugging movement of her sensei was so pronounced that it couldn't be anything less than an open mockery of her deficient sight.
"We'll find you a pair of glasses soon enough, but you need to learn how to fight in the dark, using your sensing will help in most occasions, but you already know that there are people specialized in not being seen nor felt, so we need to up your awareness, it will help with chakra control in any case."
The worst thing about him is that he explains why he's right far too easily. Karin decided when he hauled her to her feet after she had grabbed his offered hand.
She frowned as she considered his words, it wasn't like he didn't know what he was talking about, he had dispatched a group of hunter nin not a week before, and Karin had awakened only because of his sudden flaring of chakra.
While startled by the rough awakening, she wasn't overly worried, she could feel clearly enough that when he was 'open' to her, she could tell that he hadn't ill intentions.
When his attention was on her, Karin could feel an undercurrent of both bright golden hope and steely expectations that she was meant to meet.
So, when she felt the trio of hunter nin attacked him, she had immediately known that her sensei would defend her, and after his showing off during the bolting away from the Iwa outpost... well, she had some hard data to confirm his supposed skill.
...
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